It's almost like a thought from a Sci-Fi novel that we are being watched and tracked and our actions are being recorded for future use, but this has become the case in our day and age. This innocuous action is reminiscent of the movie The Matrix. In the story it wasn't the development of a robot race that could take over the world, but rather a helper to make our lives easier. These helpers evolved and more were produced to help with other things until the point they surpassed the human race. Through the development of the "filter bubble" and online trackers we are edging ever closer to the realization of this story. I appreciate the usefulness of tracking our online activity and searches to help in our future searches, but at the same time, I find it hard not to be conservative about what information is left online for other to find and use. I think the question we have to each ask ourselves is how much is too much. As respecting the video involving Mrs. Turkle, a year ago I would have been shock and astounded by the information she provided. I was fortunate enough last year though to have had someone point this out to me, involving my children and how technology takes away from the quality in quality time with the family. After realizing how much time I spent with my children that we were all alone in our own activities, I have made huge leaps and bounds in trying to fix this situation. I realize adolescents need their own time and space, but I also feel they need the unity of a family as well.
Sonny,
ReplyDeleteI agree with you this video by Ms. Turkle is very sobering. You don't have to be around very long to observe what is going on with the texting and the lack of conversation. Our children are all grown, but you are on the right track, spend as much time with them as you can and do the simple things together, believe it will have the greatest impact on their lives, much more than texting.
Sonney, good description of the assignment and insightful observations about how technology affects us. Keep up the hard work!
ReplyDeleteSonny, I think it is great that you have taken the opportunity to see that your family is in active participation together and not separated in your own activities. Growing up "quality" time in my house was watching TV with our dad. Fast forward 20 years and my own husband seems to be taking that same lead with our own children. We finally purchased a large flat screen earlier this year and I HATE it. I feel like we are all like zombies in front of it. I keep the TV off during the day while our children are doing their school work and it doesn't come on until their dad sits down in front of it. I am hoping to convince my husband to get rid of our TV programming all together and just use the TV to watch a movie every so often. I am hoping to move our family in a direction more towards books as our outlets. I do not want to cultivate children that want others to feed them, I want them to feed themselves. :) Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteSonney,
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job highlighting the points of the video lecture. I agree with you when on the fact that it is sad that texting and internet usage have taken the place of real conversation. Personally, I find it difficult to carry on a conversation with someone in real life because I am so used to communicating through technology.